Monday, June 26, 2023

A Scottish flower post


My family teases me regularly because my photo storage from my phone has not saved or whatever for a good 600+ days. I have too many photos, many of them nature-related, and they give me grief about "how many sky pictures do you need? How many flowers? Why are there pictures of bugs? Mother!"
I can't help it. Sign me up for an intervention.

Anyway, the photo above (which may be the one I'm proudest of- not bad for a phone picture) is of a thistle (Scotland's national flower) in the foreground and Stirling Castle in the background. Just the castle itself is going to take more than one post as I took a tour and tramped all over the place and then I remembered that Tino wasn't in any of the pictures so I retraced some steps and took even more photos.

But that is not this post.

This one is of some of the lovely flowers I encountered, so if you're not a flower person I hereby give you permission to skip it. No worries.


Above, a Blueblossom and below, a diligent Scottish bee working on a thistle.



These possibly had nametags which I didn't have the foresight to take pictures of, so I dunno what they are, but they're in part of the impressive Queen's Gardens at Stirling Castle.

This tree, (feel free to click on the photo), has a sign saying
"Apple 'Stirling Castle' First Raised in 1831 Cambuskenneth"
Seeing as my great grandmother Frances was born in 1900, that's one seasoned apple tree!



Roses and a view of the walls to give a little idea of height.


Above, a Catawba rosebay which is apparently a fancy way of saying it's a kind of rhododendron.

Below, my app says these are European Beech.



Above, Oriental poppies.

Tino with a Blueblossom, below.



Above, Colorado blue columbine and hybrid tea roses below



Another view of the gardens. The sheer wall up to the right leads to the balcony off the nursery where the children played, up high, no doubt overheard by the women lounging about in the Queen's Gardens.

Looking forward to sharing more of Scotland with you!

 

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